Caught Up: Austin Smith

January 07, 2008

Austin is one of the loosest, most awesome guys I know. I met Austin through Bryan Fox up at Hood a few years ago. He was real quiet at first and I had no idea he was such a sender, which since then has been evidenced time and time again. He’s a real hater too, but being a digger at HCSC that’s kind of a pre-requisite. Austin may very well have had the part of the year last year in MDPeople’s, We’re People Too, and chances are that next September he’ll be following that up with even more nastiness in the new flick. The young lad from Bend Oregon is not good at pow, good at rails, or good at pipe; he’s just good at snowboarding and everything that that encompasses. He’s not very good at being in rental cars that don’t crash though, and his taste in music can be dicey at times, but its mellow.

So lets get right to it. You and Bryan Fox are both off K2 and now riding for Nitro. How did that all go down?

Yeah, Bryan and I ride for Nitro and it’s awesome. I’m not really sure how it “went down” but people were telling me how I should get an agent and how I shouldn’t ride for Nitro and all sorts of other bullshit. But Tonino the Nitro TM asked me and Bryan if we wanted to ride for nitro and obviously we said yes, I’m glad I didn’t listen to anyone else.

Do you have to listen to more metal now because you’re on Nitro, or are you still jamming a lot of Avril Lavigne?

Ha, Avril will keep you awake on any long drive but 3 Inches of Blood is a must before you send a big jump.

You just went on your first team trip to Europe with one of our guys, Liam, who else was on that crew?

You got to spend some time out there with your buddy Curtis who was out there as well. Did you guys get into anything wild?

Oh yeah, the whole Volcom crew was out there getting’ loose, Curtis took down an Austrian babe and I heard that Zac got into a fight or something. And later we totaled that Jeep, I’ve never been in a car accident where all the air bags go off and stuff so that was pretty exciting, broken axel, the works. We know how to have a good time.

So you and Tonino totaled a Jeep while you were out there. When you and I were in the rental with Joe in New Zealand we sunk it in a farm pond. Are you bad luck, or are you just running with a reckless crowd?

Yeah, somehow I got blamed for both of these, I just like to encourage bad ideas.

In other sponsor news, you just signed on with Nike. That’s just for boots right? You’re still running Quik outerwear?

You also just went on your first team trip with Nike to Russia, what’s the difference between a team trip with Nike and a team trip with Nitro?

Ha, Nike is like going on a trip with your rich girlfriends parents—you have a strict schedule, you know where your eating, where your staying, how you are getting there—a low stress trip. It’s nice and most of importantly you fly first class. And with Nitro its just like going on a vacation with all your bros—you get lost, stay up late, sleep in, and eat pizza. They are both awesome but I’m just a little more accustomed to Nitro’s style.

I heard that Nike is going to have iPods in their boots like those running shoes they have. How cool is that?

Yeah its crazy, they have iPods, flashing lights and even a little pop out flat screen.

Who do I have to talk to to pro-form a pair of those bad boys?

I was wondering the same thing. I think you need to talk to Tiger Woods or something.

Where are you going to be spending most of the winter?

Uh, not too sure, Quiksilver just got a team house in SLC so probably hang there a bit but try to spend some time up in Canada or at Baker and of course in Bend ridiing at Bachelor.

You’re not a contest guy but I know you’re going to at least two this year. Which will those be?

I’m going to the Banked Slalom and The Gap Session, real excited for both of them. David Benedek has always been one of my favorite pro snowboarders so it was pretty crazy to have him invite me to his contest.

You’re a good rider in pow, are you bummed that you didn’t get invited to the Natural Selection in Jackson?

Ha, not at all, those dudes are on a whole ‘nother level, 100 times better than me. It would be a sweet contest to watch though—see Gigi getting after it.

So last year you crashed your Summit 800 into a tree, got a couple dings on it, then kicked it down to our friend Jared. What kind of sled are you rooping around on now?

Yeah, Merry Christmas Jared. I bought Jakob’s Polaris 900, I was a bit nervous at first but oh boy does she ever pull—brappppp!

Have you been getting pretty loose on that thing? I heard you hit Curtis the other day.